Round-up Tracks: Years & Years, Fall Out Boy & More

As they edge towards a pop royalty status, it’s fitting that London trio Years & Years begin the year with a ‘King’ card. Similarly-minded to the storming singles that cemented their buzz back in 2014, it’s home to one of the biggest choruses in honks, surrounded with synth lines that inject invention where others might fall flat. There’s a formula these three follow. Frontman Olly Alexander sings about heartbreak while sounding positively celebratory, his bandmates decorating each certified #banger with enough complexities to dazzle several listens in. But make no mistake, this is an instant charmer of the highest order, the kind of undisputed chart-botherer that suddenly maps out the rest of the next twelve months in gorgeous shades. Years & Years have one hell of a year ahead of them. (Jamie Milton)

Fall Out Boy are back. ‘Centuries’ announced it, the title track to their upcoming sixth album ‘American Beauty/American Psycho’ underlined it and ‘The Kid’s Aren’t Alright’ angrily scribbled it around the news. And, just in case the message wasn’t quite obvious enough, they’ve released this latest new preview, ‘Irresistible’.

Opening with a brass procession that flanks a hurried soliloquy of intent, ‘Irresistible’s scene is set by a marriage of expected celebration and nervous intrusion. It’s the return of the king, but what is he wearing? The minimalistic instrumentals and big, brash beats sit tight to the thumping vocal storm before dropping away and letting that stadium refrain soar. In a recent interview, Patrick Stump said “We’re the last rock band that doesn’t think that pop is a four letter word.” And, surrounded by glittering pop and an air of menace, he whispers an ‘Irresistible’ promise that’ll shape 2015. “I’m coming for you and I’m making war.” (Ali Shutler)

If ever there was a location to match the cosy audible-blanket that is The Staves’ music then it would be hard to find somewhere more suited than Justin Vernon’s log cabin. The Watford sister-act have sprung up quite a friendship with the bonnie-bear himself in recent years, making 5 trips to his wintery Wisconsin home studio to record their forthcoming sophomore.

It’s clearly paid off too; as Vernon’s Midas touch adds a sparkling grandeur to what would otherwise be intimate folk song. It’s a technique that JV has perfected over the last couple of Bon Iver/Volcano Choir records, and certainly does more good than harm when applied to the work of the Staveley-Taylors. Guitar lines glisten like sunlight through icicles and snares shuffle and crunch like feet on a new frost, both providing an atmospheric remedy to The Staves’ melancholic harmonies. Simply beautiful. (Will Moss)

Obaro Ejimiwe’s been teasing at new material for months, osting snippets, sharing stories and ensuring fans that, like them, he can’t wait for his new stuff to be out there either. The time has now arrived, and with the first real taste of new album ‘Shedding Skin’, it’s clear that Ghostpoet hasn’t lost his poetic stride or train of thought in the time away. ‘Off Peak Dreams’ is as focused, warm and instantly connectable as anything he’s put his name to in the past.

Ghostpoet’s formula has always encouraged you to ride along with him, and nothing’s changed in regard to the familiarity of his accounts. It’s down the pub chat taken to a new level - talk of ‘mugs of tea’ and ‘bacon sarnies’ mumbled, yet remaining forever on point. The new arrangement, a more traditional guitar-bass-drums affair, means that there’s more space for these reflections to breath without the effected vocal flips and whatnot. It’s no drastic change by any stretch, but the subtle evolution of his artistry over the previous two records has continued pushing towards the organic. Amid the piano chords and tight but almost noodling, gorgeous bass parts, Mr. Poet takes stock of his gripes with everyday life but emerges to find a positive spin. Concluding that “Life’s alright I guess if sweetened up”, ‘Off Peak Dreams’ is a returning statement that leaves Ghostpoet’s own tunes sweetening the glum everyday monotony that he bemoans once more. (Liam McNeilly)

Of Montreal’s enigmatic front man, Kevin Barnes has long been one of pops most engaging wide-eyed fantasists, and his band’s chameleon-like career flits between genres with almost effortless, prolific ease. Returning with their thirteenth studio album, ‘Aureate Gloom’, the band, from Athens, Georgia, are on prime form, as evidenced on the stylish strut of new track ‘Empyrean Abattoir’.

Barnes describes the band’s new album as sounding like late 70’s New York. You certainly get that feeling from the nervy new wave, bass-driven mutant-funk groove that accompanies some typically esoteric lyrics and imagery from Kevin Barnes. Providing a nice link between disco cool and the city’s early decade proto-punk pioneers, the track veers off on a gloriously bratty punk tangent as Barnes channels the New York Dolls in an uproarious glammy climax. As confounding and idiosyncratic as ever ‘Empyrean Abattoir’ is an example of the wonderful world of Of Montreal at their very best. (Martyn Young)

One of rap’s more novel success stories, Action Bronson’s new album ‘Mr. Wonderful’ should live up to his reputation if this, the second release from it, is anything to go by. Everyone feels the need to confide in Mama sometimes, but being able to account for your wild behaviour with your blistering success must be affirming stuff. ‘Actin Crazy’ brings classic Bronson style, and pairs it with some fluid production from Omen and Noah “40” Shebib (Drake’s good mate/collaborator).

Self-congratulatory bars with a sprinkling of culinary references, in this instance addressed to his mum, have become Bronson’s calling card. True to form, this reflection on his success and lifestyle is thankful, hopeful, unrepentant, and universally tongue in cheek. Having moved from gourmet chef to rap star, Bronson’s understandably chuffed with his lot, and this has made for hip-hop that’s as entertaining as it is irreverent. That jazzy trumpet refrain also hints that a great staple of Bronson’s music, evident since some of his earliest work, will see a welcome return in ‘Mr. Wonderful’ too. (Louis Haines)

Half of Viet Cong’s self-titled debut album is one glorified pit stop, a much-needed break from the melee. The record opens with a wall of tumbling noise, the whole thing threatening to keep its grip until the forty-minute running time, but the beauty of this Calgary band is in how and when they draw the line. ‘Silhouettes’ is a fine example of the group injecting melody into their otherwise thrashing embraces. The track gives hints of new wave, with zero hints towards the direction arriving in the preceding songs. When the walls cave in and everything comes close to breaking point, in steps a careering, standalone guitar line, a sudden break in pace and spirit. And then the gears restart, the motioning madness reaching yet another peak. Viet Cong are clearly perfectionists in timing, and their frustrated post punk looks like being one of 2015’s most vital soundtracks. (Jamie Milton)

Recorded two months after their formation in 2013, Yung’s ‘Nobody Cares’ bristles with a sense of urgency and frustration in equal measure, played out over relentless, fuzz-drenched guitars. Frontman Mikkel Holm Silkjær’s vocals, while not the prettiest thing in the world, capture the angst and frustration of youth, balancing on a knife-edge between the caustic and the apathetic, with the drawled refrain of ‘Nobody Cares’ less-than-subtly demonstrating this.

More than a year after its recording ‘Nobody Cares’ will finally see the light of day as part of the Danish four-piece’s debut international release ‘Alter’. That it’s taken so long for a label to pick Yung up and release overseas is completely incredible, but it’s better late than never for a band who have been tearing up their homeland over the past couple of months with their off-the-wall live show. It’s perhaps a bit early in the day to be celebrating them as the voice of a generation, but what ‘Nobody Cares’ shows is that Yung are at the very least a band with a distinctive voice, and one well worth paying attention to over the next few months. (Stuart Knapman)

Ryley Walker is a Chicago based artist, who this year will release an album on Dead Oceans. Last year Walker released his debut LP ‘All Kinds Of You’ and follows it with ‘Primrose Green’. He’s shared the title track this week. Alongside upcoming solo artists Tobias Jesso Jr. and Leon Bridges, Walker’s sound is rooted in his love of music from the past. ‘Primrose Green’ calls to mind the trans-Atlantic folk artists of the 60’s and 70’s, with a nod to artists born out of the genre’s canon. Delicate and meditative, ‘Primrose Green’ may sound nostalgic, but Walker’s lyrics are looking to the future, in which an idyllic space provides a place for reflection. Plucked with an ease, Walker’s guitar playing is as skilful as he is sensual and worth keeping an eye out for if you long for a pastoral summer in 2015. (Sean Stanley)

Tags: Fall Out Boy, Years & Years, Listen, Features